Eyes
Jul 12, 2016
In the original Maniac Mansion, heads were large because pixels on the C64 were very huge. Due to the color mode we were using, they were not even square pixels, they were twice as wide as tall. The hardware sprites each character had to fit in were 24 pixel wides, so Gary just made the heads as wide as he could to capture the personality of the characters.
There are huge parts of our brains that are dedicated to recognizing faces and subtle movements and expresses. How do I know this? Because I'm not only a game designer, I'm also an evolutionary neurological cognitive brain scientist. Look it up.
When Zak came out, the heads were shrunk to be "more realistic". By the time Monkey Island was made, the heads had gotten even smaller. True, it was more realistic, but I felt something was lost.
Guybrush didn't blink and he didn't move his eyes (except in some special case animations). Razor, Bernard and Micheal didn't blink either. Or move their eyes. Everyone stared straight ahead like zombies.
A month ago we added blinking to the Thimbleweed Park characters and it really changed how you feel about the game being alive. When someone is just standing, the blinking makes them feel real. If you were playing the game, you might not even notice it at a conscience level, but it's something you'd feel.
Last week I added eye movement. Characters can now look left and right. It adds a lot to even idles, as the characters appear to be looking around, aware of the environment. It's also really nice in conversations, because characters can actual look at who is talking to them. Before (and in previous games), characters would just stare forward. It's surprising how used to this you get, and when blinking and eye movement goes in, it's actually startling.
- Ron
I like, the C64-version of Maniac Mansion was the best version of all systems ever.
I think, it will be a very nice feature to offer a C64-look-like-mode for Thimbleweed Park with SID-like-sounds, too. ;)
But I'm afraid, it would be too much work to realize that till release date.
when I read that idle animations are present, I immediately thought of the Amiga game "PP Hammer and his pneumatic weapon": http://www.spriters-resource.com/resources/game_icons/3/2392.png
So, I became curious: As PP Hammer starts smoking when you leave the joystick untouched for a while, can we expect that in Thimbleweed Park? Or would it be too politically incorrect to have a smoking character?
Best,
Sebastian
I would prefer, for instance, yawning, taking a look at the watch, hand setting the jacket, pulling the trousers up, stretching the ankle joints or the arms and maybe going round in circles.
By the way, in Bud Tucker in Double Trouble the playable character even uses to adjust his crotch. Though, in my opinion, it had a negative impact on the charm of this character, because it's a rather vulgar kind of idle animation, even though it's a natural part of the landscape in the reality. Maybe Ransome shall adjust his crotch. He seems to be predestined for it.
Speaking of realism, in Leisure Suit Larry, you could use the toilet. Even though it was quite funny there, I don't feel the urge to watch a character in TP do this.
There could be values for setting the frequency of these kind of idle animations for male, female, unspecified and even animal characters...
The actors already got such attribute assigned, it would be shame not to use it :-)
So, smoking has been mentioned. How about checking his/her wristwatch? Shaking it to the ear, to see if it's still ticking.
Or making the knuckles make popping noises. Filing fingernails. Blowing hair out of the face.
Or, taking items out of the inventory and checking those out, for a little while.
- walk to John
- say "Remember me?"
- turn your back to John
- look askance at John
For example, unless scripted/triggered, Rey's idle blinking is (randomly) quicker than Reyes...
Or also, as an example, Ransome is set to rarely blink but looks around more frequently than most characters.
eye position, blink, mouth, animation type (e.g., run, climb), position (x,y,z), and direction (e.g., forward, left profile)?
How/where are the animations triggered, how/where are values passed and modified?
I know this might be fundamentally simple for most, but some code would be cool.
Game over and out.
MI 1 & 2 have given us the freedom to at least imagine situational facial expressions within the pixelated faces of the characters. Furthermore, as Ron mentioned, there were a few special case animations with special facial expressions.
In contrast, the faces in the VGA version of MM are always smiling. Whenever something bad happens there, such as getting jailed, the current character would just keep smiling. Maybe this smiling was inserted in order to make the game more appropriate for children, however it was not suitable for the dramatic story, except the happy ending. For this reason, I got a slightly creepy sort of vibes from the characters, when I played MM for the first time - as if not only the villains but also the playable characters were a little bit psychopathic.
Therefore, the blinking and moving eyes are a very wise feature in TP, albeit Ray and Reyes don't smile by default. :)
The head and body turns would be nice, but are too expensive from an animation standpoint. This is one of the areas that 3D is nice.
http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Data
By the way, the huge pixels were by far not the only restriction on that platform. For technical reasons, the characters' sprites could only have four different colors at the same time (including one color for transparent areas), which is a heavy restriction as well. If you only have such a limited color palette, you cannot shrink the faces at will, of course, if you want to make sure that a face actually looks like a face.
Also the backgrounds have their limitations, as a multicolor char has 3 shared colors and one individual color which can only have one of the first 8 colors.
It is quite a challenge to make nice graphics on a C64. It has to be well thought how you do things. In the SCUMM games, obviously they did.
I just cant wait to release date!!!
On a side note, I'd be interested to know how many 'customization' options there are in the game so far (there must quite a few)- I know there's pixel-purist mode, UI font/black bar options, etc.
Now, about that elevator... XDDD
The bobble heads are something I like in theory, but in practice I prefer the Monkey Island style heads if I'm being honest.
It's like the potential is there for the bobble heads to have way more character, but I feel that there's something a bit awkward about them. Now that I look at the eyes more, I think it's partly to do with how the eyes are so wide across (4 pixels), with a wide pupil (2 pixels)... to me it looks like they're squinting and have massively dilated pupils, like they're high and glazed over and vacant. I feel in general bobble heads can create these oddly proportioned faces that are sometimes less characterful than smaller heads.
I also think some work better than others, I think Ransome and Delores work and convey character, but I have a hard time connecting with the two main agents, I just can't read anything into their faces or get any sense of character from them. I know that sounds harsh so apologies if that offends anyone.
I think the Monkey Island size heads did a good job at hiding the limitations of pixelated faces, while giving you just enough to read into, when combined with things like posture, glasses, facial hair, etc. and they kept facial proportions realistic so were easier to connect with, for me.
Having said all that, the bobble heads do create a link back to Maniac Mansion which is important as far as the spirit and feel of the game.
One of my favourites was the Keen games; the little guy would sit down and read a book, or do similar stuff "on his own" when you didn't touch the controls. Fantastic :)
I did sometimes worry about having enough time for him to snap back into action, though. So in a lot of ways the technique would work better in point-and-click adventure games, where speed isn't so much of a necessity.
Y'know, unless you're running about carrying grog.
That's why I'm wondering that I am the only one thinking this looks strange...
If they would be eyebrows, there would be a pixel between the eye and the eyebrow. As there isn't, it's an eyelash.
I've taken a look at Maniac Mansion: They had (proper) eyebrows, even the C64 version.
The girls also have eyelashes. Oh, and I didn't remember Razor having that much makeup.
https://storage.googleapis.com/images.thimbleweedpark.com/www/character_dave.png
I think, there cannot be so many people in TP having eyelashes but no eyebrows. The style just has changed a little bit inasmuch as a few characters have no gap of 1 px between their eyebrows and their eyes (which would be absolutely okay).
Some team members' avatars, too, by the way:
https://blog.thimbleweedpark.com/teamthimbleweed
Therefore, I still agree with Nor Treblig. The dark pixels above Ray's eyes seem to actually be eyebrows.
That said, Mr. Gilbert, you need to get yourself a copy editor. stat! LOL!
-dZ.
P.S. Thanks for the blog post! :)
Treating the character in a videogame like an actor is really nice. Beyond Good and Evil had Jade being happy, scared or sad depending on the environment, the latest Tomb Raider shows Lara's fear, exhaustion, disgust, pain depending on her situation. Most people don't notice facial animations, but this extra touch really counts.
I really hope you release the engine, it can be a commercial engine too.
Just consider this. Currently, the most accessible engine to the public for making 8-bit adventure games is AGS. But in AGS, you can't even have walking and talking at the same time! And noone notices and noone cares that this is missing, and if you really want it, you have to bend the way you're supposed to script. Objects, attached to other objects also create various problems in AGS. I'm sure that what you use not only covers what AGS does, but does way more, especially in regard to characters and their animation and movements, and I'm especially happy with the inclusion of blinking, which is something the characters really needed. Sorry. I get overly excited over "small" additions like this one.
I always thought this, but it became an extremely important point when doing animations for my own 8-bit games. In my platform of choice (the Intellivision), sprites are merely 8 pixels wide and up to 16 half-pixels high, with a single colour, and you must overlay multiple objects in order to add colours, rapidly depleting the built-in eight. Even though it's an arcade-action game in the style of Pac-Man, the game is driven by "introduction sequences" (cut-scenes) that add an extra dimension of warmth and story, developing the characters' arcs.
A particular character, The Ghost Of Christmas Presents, whom is a bit dim-witted and extremely fond of wrapped packages, only has eyes (and the occasional smile) to convey emotions. With merely turning on or off and shifting the pixels of its eyes, I managed to effectively convey a wide variety of expressions and emotions; from fear, to surprise, to bewilderment, to happiness.
Here's an example, for those interested., it's end sequence when you save Christmas and "beat the game" by completing all puzzle mazes. The Ghost has been trapped inside and ice cube and Carol, the protagonist Elf, frees him by destroying the Bad Toy Robot and melting the ice with a torch. (Note that due to a bug in this old recording, the eyes do not show up until Carol beats the Bad Toy with a stick.)
https://vimeo.com/71569822
Other videos of the game can be found in the official page here:
http://www.carolvsghost.com/pg_trailers.html
-dZ.
https://dl.dropbox.com/s/4jqn3qr1ko799dn/AlienAgents.jpg
And here is yet another twist to the Thimbleweed Park story:
https://dl.dropbox.com/s/fok4yx5zfsyivt2/GuiltyAgents.gif
which says: who gives you drugs, turns you off.
While I was watching the second image (gif) I expected that they turn their heads and start to kiss...
In any case this strengthen your thesis...
I STILL HAVE F***ING NIGHTMARES DUE TO THAT.
Really. I clicked on the link before reading your comment and I just needed to see the first frame to freak the f**k out and try to close that video as soon as possible.
I think there's no Italian 30-something year old who doesn't freak out when they think about it.
I've returned from vacation...
Nice thing the eye blinking and looking at the sides. It feels more realistic
The only time you don't see this is in movies - which isn't real anyway - and the actors are trained to not blink - keep there eyes open and focused as long as possible.
Just a friendly tip from a lone wolf animator.